It [Nnena’s work] breaks down walls between, if you like, neurotypical and neurodiverse artists. It becomes really about the power and quality of the work itself, whatever the artist's identity is.
– Alex Farquharson, Turner Prize Jury Chair and Tate Britain Director
Nnena Kalu is the first learning disabled artist to win the Turner Prize, the UK’s most prestigious prize for visual artists.
Nnena was introduced to ActionSpace through her Day Centre in Wandsworth in 1999. She is autistic, with complex support needs and limited verbal skills. Nnena quickly showed an aptitude and a strong desire to create art. Whilst in her life outside of ActionSpace, Nnena requires 24-hour support and supervision; working in a nurturing creative environment allows her to express her unique creative voice and to have full control over her art practice.
ActionSpace manages Nnena’s studio and her practice, providing her with the facilities, materials, equipment, and optimum working environment she requires to make her own creative decisions and produce artwork in the way she needs to. ActionSpace sources bespoke opportunities, cultivates exhibition and selling opportunities, and advocates on Nnena’s behalf, as would any studio/practice manager.
Charlotte Hollinshead, ActionSpace’s Head of Artist Development, has supported Nnena for 28 years and has an in-depth and intuitive knowledge of Nnena and her practice. Charlotte has trained and leads a team of assisting facilitators to support Nnena in her studio as artist assistants.
Nnena has exhibited nationally and internationally, including an acclaimed solo presentation for Glasgow International 2018 and a major London-based solo commission as part of ‘Studio Voltaire Elsewhere’ in 2020. These shows led to significant awards to further develop her professional art practice, including the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists, the LOEWE FOUNDATION/Studio Voltaire Award, and the Mark Tanner Sculpture Development Grant, which proved to be a turning point in Nnena’s professional art practice.
Her work has since been featured in many UK and international exhibitions, including a sculptural installation commissioned by Yinka Shonibare for the 2021 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition; Creations of Care, a solo exhibition at Kunstall Stavanger, Norway, in 2025; and as part of We Contain Multitudes at Dundee Contemporary Arts in 2026. Nnena’s work has been selected for the British Art Show 10, curated by Ekow Eshun, which will tour across the UK from 2026 to 2027. In 2023, diptychs were purchased for The Arts Council Collection and Tate Collections, marking what is thought to be the first acquisition of work by a British learning-disabled artist by Tate.
Nnena was nominated for the Turner Prize 2025 for her inclusion in the group exhibition Conversations at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and her works Hanging Sculpture 1-10. Barcelona at Manifesta 15. The jury commended her unique command of material, colour, and gesture and her highly attuned responses to architectural space.
Nnena is now represented by Arcadia Missa Gallery, who present her work at Frieze and Art Basel.
This is clearly a watershed moment for arts and disabilities, a total shifting of the traditional art paradigm.
… witnessing the way you support, facilitate, and advocate for Nnena and her artistic practice, particularly in such changing times, has been an instrumental part of our learning about ableism, where challenges lie, and what we can do to make change.
– Beth Bate, Director, Dundee Contemporary
